[Interview Begins]

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Today is April 22nd, 2024. And this is an interview with. Please state your full name, Ron.

SCHNORENBERG: Ron Schnorenberg.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And what is your full name?

SCHNORENBERG: Ronald J. Schnorenberg.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Thank you. And you go by Ron, obviously. And you served in the United States Army. And what were the dates that you served, Ron.

SCHNORENBERG: From the summer of 1968 till July of 1970.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you served during the Vietnam War? Yes. That's correct. All right. Good. And this interview is being conducted by Ellen Bowers Healey at Hartford, Wisconsin, for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. No one else is present for this interview. All right, Ron, tell me a little bit about, where you grew up and who was in your family.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. I was born and raised in. And I have three siblings. I'm the second oldest. My sister is the oldest and my youngest. And then my brother's a little younger. Me. And then I had a baby sister. And, my real good family background. You know, good Catholic family. My dad was a manager of a car dealership, which was very interesting. All the hours he put in and. But every year we had a brand new car to drive. So that was always something we we were proud of.

BOWERS HEALEY: What kind of cars?

SCHNORENBERG: Pontiac. Okay. And then, my mother contracted. Was that noticed with the mass when I was quite young? So that really changed our lifestyle somewhat. Our family vacations end up being a little shorter and better places where she could work with the stamps and stuff. And I watch my dad all his life take care of her and stuff. And we all helped, of course. So we all graduated from Western High School.

BOWERS HEALEY: And what's the name of the high school.

SCHNORENBERG: West Bend High School?

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: At that time was Badger. Now it's, they split that up, but we had really good, you know, good, good childhood, you know, little league and and stuff like that.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you work in your dad's garage at all or not?

SCHNORENBERG: No. My brother got interested in mechanics, but I really never got that interested in mechanics. I, we all worked at the N.W. a couple blocks away, so that's what I was really, enjoy doing. My sister was a car hop there, and I was a paper boy by doing papers one day, and they needed someone to come back and write mugs. And that's how I got started at the age of 12.

BOWERS HEALEY: Obviously, before we started interviewing, you also indicated that your family had connections here in Hartford. Is that correct?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. My my, dad's oldest brother, Clarence, started, for covering business in Hartford here. And so that we're really a proud family with that is and it's third generation now is quite well known throughout the county. In fact, even in Milwaukee, they do some businesses, they're always on radio advertising and stuff. So yeah, we we have a really proud name behind us.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And you've already told me about your education and where you worked and, before you joined the military, what got you, to join the military?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, I other than that, then got a full time job at Sears after graduating, and, I was just misbehaving. Like most people at that age, without drinking most every night and just waiting for the draft. The call me up, you know? And so eventually, I decided I would volunteer for the draft. I didn't tell my folks that, but my dad's a World War Two veteran. He was very proud of his service. In fact, he got a Bronze Star. And, he was so proud of his service, and I felt I should maybe do the same.

BOWERS HEALEY: And where did he serve?

SCHNORENBERG: He was World War two in Germany.

BOWERS HEALEY: In Germany? Yes. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: Later he wrote a whole journal on everything. And a lot of times he was telling stories about the war, and we were watching a war movie or something. So I, I did this and that and we never knew if was true or not until we read his journal. And it was just fantastic.

BOWERS HEALEY: You still have his journal?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yes. Most definitely this big handwritten. And it's just amazing. I think that really helped me develop the family that I am today because of what he did.

BOWERS HEALEY: When did you read it? How old were you when you read it?

SCHNORENBERG: That's a good question. I would say a couple of years after coming home from from Nam.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And, I'm going to ask you a little bit more about your dad and his Bronze Star. Do you know why he got a Bronze Star or what?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah. He he told us a story, which we didn't believe until we read it in his journal. But he was driving a general around, and I got attacked, and he dragged the general to safety and got the car started to get the Jeep started again and got out of the firefight. Okay. And now they say, no, it is. We get really good times. The hard for you because you. He was born and raised in Hartford, a farm outside of town here. Your dad was. Yes. And that's where grandpa was. And that we came visit here all the time. And it was a ballroom in town here. It was then at that time called Mary Joseph Conrad. It used to be called Chandelier Ballroom, and I didn't name that that again. But he claimed that when we was in Lawrence Welk. Yes. I took your mom for a first date, the Hartford for Lawrence Welk and against. We didn't believe that. We read it in his journal. So I got a break at the Channeling Ballroom with their names on it, that it was their first date back in 1948 or something like that.

BOWERS HEALEY: Now, you mentioned that you are of German background. Did your dad happen to speak German or not?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, yes. Every Christmas, that's all. They talked at the dinner table. The mom and dad would talk German to keep secrets from us. And I the only German I know. His curse words.

BOWERS HEALEY: And so when your dad was over in Germany during World War two, was he used as an interpreter?

SCHNORENBERG: Do you know? No. I'm not.

BOWERS HEALEY: No, no. Okay. All righty.

SCHNORENBERG: And naturally, your ballroom is a war prison. It was. We had war prisoners here. In town. Here. And story has it that the prisoners were released every day to work in the farms. And all the German farmers really appreciated having them. And they appreciated able to communicate with the farmers. So it's a quite a strong, German area. You're.

BOWERS HEALEY: You mentioned the ballroom a couple of times. What was the name of the ballroom?

SCHNORENBERG: Charlie, the ballroom.

BOWERS HEALEY: Challenger.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. Chandler.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, Chandler.

SCHNORENBERG: The the the light.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: Chandelier. Chandelier. Now I got it right. That's okay. And then when we grew up in our teenage years, then it was very difficult. There was a big dance hall. Ricky Nelson played there and stuff like that. So it's a quite a famous place. I'm really proud of Hartford.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Interesting to know that, World War, two P.O.W. for years.

SCHNORENBERG: Even though I was born and raised in West Bend, we had a lot of ties here because we always came here to visit grandpa. And most of his brothers and sisters were from this area.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Now, you indicated that you were working full time at Sears before you joined. And you're kind of waiting for the draft to. When you were in high school and while you were waiting for the draft or deciding whether to join, what was going on in the world or what did you know about Vietnam?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, I was really I think I was going to say we were very naive, but I guess I would say I was very naive with it. I mean, we had social study classes and stuff, but there really wasn't much talk about it. And as far as the demonstrations go, I, I had to look in the history books as far as when it really all started. I think it was mostly mostly like in 68, 69 when the demonstrations started. So by that time I was drafted. So we I didn't know much about it. It's just that all the communists are going to take over the country. And, you know, if we don't stop at Vietnam, they'll be in California next and all that stuff. That's somewhat what what we heard. And I just felt I just wanted to get kind of get it over with. Some of my friends went to college to try to get all the draft, and they didn't enjoy that. And, I enjoyed my job in series. I was in the shipping receiving department. There's just a small, serious store in West Bend. Okay. Catalog department there and stuff. But I just thought I'd like to move on with my life.

BOWERS HEALEY: So how long after high school did you work at Sears? Was it a year or two or.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, it was just just, half a year. So I graduated in June, and I already volunteered for the draft. Like, I think in fall already when everybody was going to school, I decided to volunteer for the draft. And ironically, the draft board was in Hartford here. So I drove over the Hartford here and volunteered for draft. And when that letter came, I cut off the top of the letter was said volunteer. So my folks in that no, I volunteered.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, okay. So you were actually a volunteer, but, you weren't drafted. But I take it you thought it was going to come pretty soon.

SCHNORENBERG: Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, cut it off. Okay. So what did your parents say?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, they kind of knew it was coming, too. And my best buddy, he was just drafted, like, a month earlier than that. So this guy, he he's about the one I hung out with more so, as far as I'm sure, with perfect timing. I think it was to this day as well, how they all came along. I, I don't regret it one bit.

BOWERS HEALEY: So when did you actually, get shipped off to the Army?

SCHNORENBERG: It was December 1st at the very beginning of December, and he told us we would not be coming home for Christmas. It was, you know, like we'd be going through basic training camp, would not close down with Fort Campbell, Kentucky. But, what I remember it was a, I think the coldest winter I ever experienced that it was cooler down there. They in Wisconsin. Oh, and, they did decide to close down the camp for Christmas. So we did come home. And I'll never forget that was kind of embarrassing because I hear I say goodbye to all my friends and all that stuff and, you know, we're like I said, we're barflies. We're at a bar every night. That was at that band. There was 18 years for drinking, so we had a beer bar, and he was every night a week. But, I so I say goodbye to everybody and all of sudden here, a three weeks later, I was home with my my skin, hair, head and heels guy. Ironic.

BOWERS HEALEY: Well, tell me a little bit more about basic training. When you left, Wisconsin, did you go with any other Wisconsin men.

SCHNORENBERG: Know that they can. We recall. All right. All that stuff was really foggy to me. You know, it really is. But I do remember going down Milwaukee for the exam and everything, and I couldn't even tell you where I shipped out of. And I'm, you know, swimming. It was California. I don't even know for sure.

BOWERS HEALEY: Do you remember, when you went to. Basic training at Fort Campbell. Did you, get a bus or train or. How did you get there?

SCHNORENBERG: I think we flew.

BOWERS HEALEY: We flew.

SCHNORENBERG: I remember flying a lot, and then I don't know where else I would have been flying through that much. Well, I think I think it flew down there. I know I flew home for Christmas.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. When you volunteered, what was the length or the terms of your contract?

SCHNORENBERG: Just it was just like the draft. In other words, you know, they they just put my name ahead of the the draft number. That's all. I was it that. It just was the draft.

BOWERS HEALEY: You weren't guaranteed any particular occupation.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, it was when you volunteer, as far as I know, that's just put your name to the top of the list. That's why I only took like six weeks after that.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that the when you volunteered and you signed a contract or some paper, did you know how long you were going to be in the service? Two years.

SCHNORENBERG: Ten years? Yeah. So I expected to get out by December of 70. They said they'd be home for New Year's. 71, you know.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. All right. Tell me what you remember about basic. Basic training experience in Fort Campbell. What are some memories?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, I, I was a kind of an introverted guy. I wasn't really a jock. I didn't really have any high school sports, but I basically was obsessed with my paper route and NWA for that, so I mostly worked. But, so what surprised me is how athletic I was. Probably because my size. So I could walk, crawl, and a hand guard real hard. So I got all kinds of awards for that, you know, or whatever you want to call it, recognition for that. So it really boosted my self-esteem, I think, a lot because I never was that good in school either. I never, never did any homework, and I wasn't really that much of a a guy back then.

BOWERS HEALEY: How long was your basic training, if you remember?

SCHNORENBERG: I think it was eight weeks. I think eight weeks. Like I said, the coldest winter I ever spent down there.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And while you were in basic training, did you find out what it was that you were going to do in the army?

SCHNORENBERG: They they they give you these after two tests, like last couple of weeks of basic training. And, I figured I'd end up because my dad's background, the answers, and those tests, it seemed like I was gearing towards the mechanic. I think his way of thinking, though, and in my more IQ, I figured I would be definitely infantry. Infantry, infantry, you know, probably, as they say, humping rice paddies. And so I was hoping for mechanic, but I was afraid of I'd just be infantry.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you ended up doing what?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, I don't know when that came about. When they give you your assignment for, advanced training, but I was shocked. I got, notice that we at Fort Eustis in Virginia for helicopter repair. So that's actually my MOS is helicopter repair. So then we learned all about the helicopter Cobra. Cobra helicopter to it. And so then when I got there, it was, you got your regular Huey helicopter that carries, like, 4 or 5 people, and you had gunners and and they're that what we call the gunship, the two man helicopter. So when I was really thrilled to hear that, because then I knew I wouldn't be in the race patties and I wouldn't be a door gunner either. So I won't really be getting shot at either, because we would really be on the ground just rearming and doing the daily maintenance on the helicopter.

BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me a little bit more about the the, Cobra. Well, before I do that, how long were you in advanced training?

SCHNORENBERG: I think there was another six, maybe six weeks. Eight weeks?

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, now, what sorts of things did you. Because I teach.

SCHNORENBERG: You? Well, it was. Well, again, I'm not one much of a student, so, that was really something. Adjustment. That was a classroom every day. Really wasn't that much marching or training or anything. It was mostly classroom. Because that's a lot to know about a Cobra helicopter.

BOWERS HEALEY: How many, people are in a helicopter?

SCHNORENBERG: Just two. Just a pilot and copilot weren't officers or officers.

BOWERS HEALEY: So you didn't fly?

SCHNORENBERG: No, no. Not much. No, but we we did get flight pay that we went up to do the retirement of stuff. And so we did do a lot of test flights. So that was really clever that we were able to fly and get flight pay, but not really in to much action.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: So we spent the day and on the flight line voting, we have to assemble the rockets and had us get all these rockets assembled before the helicopter came back. And we'd have to rearm. And and they all figured, you know, if there was some battle going on, they'd be coming back to rearm all the time.

BOWERS HEALEY: Before we get too much more into the rearmament. I want to go back a little bit. You left, your advanced training at Fort Eustis. Did you get leave or not?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. Most definitely. I'll remember that for relief. I was in May, early May and got home and was a traditional family vacation. Kind of like, I don't think all my siblings made it, but I think my little sister was there. We went up the house on the rocks and, you know, toward Baraboo and stuff, and we just had an bring me 3 or 4 day trip. I have pictures of us seeing as always, side, you know, like we always did when we were little kids. So that was very nice. Okay. Take a little vacation. And then I also remember my dad would say, well, you leave tomorrow. What do you want to do? You know, the last day I said, well, you know, my other friends would hang out at the bar with their dad. I said, you know, we've never had a bar together. I went, why don't we go, you know? So we went to the local bowling alley and we ordered two drinks. And he looks at me, says, so now, what are you doing? Yeah. I'll never forget that. Yeah. I mean, you know, why do we stay in a bar? Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: Their dad didn't typically go to the bar.

SCHNORENBERG: But the whole neighborhood thought he was a really heavy drinker because he'd always buy two cases of beer at the time, you know, bottle beer and be down in the cellar and with grandpa from come over, then we'd have to get a couple of beers out for the cellar for him and stuff, and. But my dad always had 1 or 2 beers a night, you know, maybe a little bit more day with wine. But he definitely was never going out. I think he'd been intoxicated once again all my life that I can remember.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, so then after you got back, you were at home, in West Bend, I take it. Yes. Yeah. And then you got shipped out to Vietnam. What do you remember about leaving Wisconsin and going to Vietnam?

SCHNORENBERG: It was tough. I cried on the plane. I have to admit. I think my mom went down there. She had multiple sclerosis, so she. I think she stayed home. But there was my sister. My dad dropped me off at the airport, and that was. That was really tough, you know?

BOWERS HEALEY: And where did they drop you off?

SCHNORENBERG: At the Mitchell Fields. Mitchell.

BOWERS HEALEY: Yeah, okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And I remember I remember that air flight, I think it was in California.

BOWERS HEALEY: Where there were other servicemembers on board.

SCHNORENBERG: Or, you know, it was we all servicemen, all servicemen. We're all servicemen.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And, what were your thoughts as you were you mentioned you cried. What what were you thinking about?

SCHNORENBERG: But again, a young guy like me, you'd never been away from home. I think it was more of that than it was the fear of war. I think, again, I when I found out what my mom was going to be, I wasn't really fearing my life at all. I was kind of looking forward to that part. So it's mostly just leaving home and feeling sorry for my mom worrying about me and stuff. So.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, so you may have gone to California, and caught another flight, I take it.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, we were there a couple days, and it was just a nerve racking days of all bunks in the hangars or someplace, just waiting to get called for the next flight. You know, it took a couple of days before we. We flew, and I think we had a layover. Doesn't make sense or Alaska, but I think we had a layover in Alaska then, so maybe I left from Oakland, I don't know. We we had a layover in Alaska enough to just get off the plane. But they watched us make sure we didn't, you know, skip out. I know enough, I got one of those souvenirs wounds. And, next up was, was Vietnam.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And, as you were coming in, to Vietnam and landing, were you able to see the country or.

SCHNORENBERG: Not that much? No, I was I was surprised. I thought I'd see, like, you know, like all you hear about the rice paddies, that's like, you see a lot of country rice paddies. But no, I was we were surprised at the size of the airport and stuff. And, and we were there a couple days again, you know, and we hear all these mortar attacks every night. And that was kind of nerve wracking and just the heat and and it just had a bad order to it. It just I always remember the order and the heat. It was just, just a stuffy heat. And that would have been all it would've been in June. Then it hit me.

BOWERS HEALEY: So June of, 1969. Yes. Okay. And where were you? Were you were waiting to go elsewhere?

SCHNORENBERG: I think it was been long. I think so, other than ki I, I should've done my homework and try to check out where I was. I think it was been long. We we, left from.

BOWERS HEALEY: When did you get assigned to, your.

SCHNORENBERG: Well, that must've been down there then when I got assigned to. And then again, I heard that was a really good area with play. Cool. I so I have no idea what that is. And they said, well that's a central island. So it's beautiful country up there. So that was really neat. It was there's mountains and trees and other than just rice paddies, it was beautiful country with it was the central highlands of Vietnam. So really close in Cambodia.

BOWERS HEALEY: What was the weather like in the Central Highlands?

SCHNORENBERG: It was hot. It yeah, I would say the Wisconsin weather as far as in the summer. But you know, breezy and then of course, rain at half the year with rain, I think.

BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me what your unit was. Who are you attached to over there?

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. Was the fourth Infantry? First to the 10th Cav, which has all kinds of history to it, which I have never had any knowledge of and really didn't really look it up much. But, what we were really familiar with was our troop. It was D troop, and we're really a close knit troop. It was all door gunners and was all crew chiefs. So we got the Huey people that went out and transported troops out to the rice paddies with two door gunners, and they were in one barracks or a couple of barracks. And our barracks was just called recruit chiefs. And I don't think we were looked at too highly because we never really got to see much action. So, you know, we were kind of like the the wimps of the organization, just like we always joked about the Air Force. Air force had a camp just down the road and he had air conditioned barracks. So we always poked one of their agents in barracks and of course, the, the, the Huey crew chiefs poke fun of us because we never saw that much action.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did your pilot and copilot, did they see action?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, all the time. I mean, they were out. I mean, their other ones. They had to go and prep the area for the Hueys to land. So that was first game. And so they received a lot of fire all the time because they prepped the area for the Huey, the land, the drop off the troops.

BOWERS HEALEY: When you say they prepped the land, what did they do? What is the.

SCHNORENBERG: Way they they blew it apart with rockets and minigun fire.

BOWERS HEALEY: So tell me more about, the. You were talking earlier about the arming of the Cobra. What is it armed with?

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. I had two big rock iPads, iPods and an online and a wings. And the rock is really, I don't know, five feet long. And they, you know, dozen each pad. So we had to go those up. And like I said, on the flight line we had we have put those rockers together. They all came in rocket in cases with cases, we use the word cases to decorate our barracks. We actually handle our barracks with with the wood boxes and we burned them to make it look really nice. Oh, okay. But anyway. And then there was a grenade launcher, they call it. It was underneath the copilot. And that would launch actually grenades. And then there was of course the, the minigun to the whatever that was called. That also was so then we always had to get those rounds lined up decent. And then we were out, I think about once a week we were able to fly that, do the test out the arming of the, the lining, a lining of a of the weapons and stuff. So we we flew quite often that way. We got to get a flight and once in a while I do have a war story to tell once in a while. If the copilot doesn't make it down and a night scramble or something, then a crew chief would hop in. So I was able to fly a couple of late night missions.

BOWERS HEALEY: What do you mean by a night scramble?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, so I if there was a firefight at night, we were called out. The helicopters that come out and try to, you know, get these guys out of trouble. So they had to, again, prep the area to have more troops land, the health of the people that were trapped in a firefight. So we were called out quite a lot at night to rearm the helicopters. They'd come back and yeah, it would take all night long that we would come back and be armed wild again. So but the one night what happens to is the again, there was a lot of drinking going on there too. And the, the officers, the pilots, they, they they like their booze. They were always drinking their booze. We had ration cards and we would give our booze ration cards to them and they give us their ration cards. So we were all bunch of you're a drink cause they're a bunch of booze drinkers. But these night missions, you know, they have to be fit them to fly. And a couple times they weren't fit to fly. So the copilot when show up or something, and I would hop in and fly the mission, and we did, you know.

BOWERS HEALEY: How often did you do that during your time?

SCHNORENBERG: I can I can remember maybe 2 or 3 times, but the one time was really bad news that we we received a lot of gunfire. And in fact, I got a medal for that too then, because we. Didn't know if you go back and rearm, we will go round one more time and fire some more. And yes, the pilot asked me. I said, yeah, let's go around one more time, you know. So. So I end up with a medal that way.

BOWERS HEALEY: Since there's only two people in, the, Cobra who is in charge of or who has the ability to fire.

SCHNORENBERG: Very good question. They both have the ability to fire, but the copilot, the one in front, is actually the gunner. So he'd be doing the firing and the pilot would be, of course, directing the helicopter. However, the pilot also has the ability to fire if he needed to. But, I mean, that night I was doing all the firing. He was just doing the flying.

BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me more about the the how do you when you're in a cobra and you've got it loaded with ammunition, how do you direct the fire? It does the.

SCHNORENBERG: Register and you have a duration a second. Yeah okay. And I also had the ability to fly to. And if I had to, like if you got shot, I could also fly, try to land it.

BOWERS HEALEY: Where did you learn that.

SCHNORENBERG: My pistol was that was weekly or. I don't know, I don't know if I would be able to land it. And I knew I never gave that a thought, that this moment. What what would happen if someone would happen? The pilot. I knew that thought.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. That's not that's interesting. You never thought about that.

SCHNORENBERG: I said I was very naive, I really was. I really didn't think much.

BOWERS HEALEY: When you were up there. And other than landing, did the pilot or the copilot, whoever you were flying with, did they give you the sticks? Oh, yeah.

SCHNORENBERG: Most definitely. Okay, yeah. We had a lot of fun. And those flights, we we call them, trim the tree tops. You know, we had all the way down to almost hit the tree tops and stuff. Almost, you know, brings you back the memories of Top Gun, how they were thrown in the air.

BOWERS HEALEY: When, you, and the pilots, the pilot and copilot, were prepping for, to go out. Were you told were you were going to go, or what the target was or. And how much of advance did you know where you were going to go?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, not much events at all. I mean, they they think they called out and. Yeah, I, you know, I don't really know where we're going. I didn't know the area that much. I mean, they knew what hill and what area, but I wasn't familiar with that at all. Okay. I just went along for the ride.

BOWERS HEALEY: So you didn't do the navigation? No.

SCHNORENBERG: Not at.

BOWERS HEALEY: All. No. And tell me again how much? Well, no. My next question is, when you were up in the, chopper in the Cobra, were you did you have personal, weapons with you or not?

SCHNORENBERG: I've. Pistol. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, that's what I was telling the guys. You know, we're I'm, I, you know, we we have the firing squad for the VFW. And I tell these guys that that's for some, if you really handle a rifle, and I'm. I always had a pistol, I never we had a, you know, M-16, of course, but I only I think was issued at one time for, for a convoy. I was, I just had a pistol.

BOWERS HEALEY: And I skipped over this. But where did you get your rifle and pistol training?

SCHNORENBERG: Now that would be basic training. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: Yeah, and they did train you with the pistol also as well?

SCHNORENBERG: I can't remember that. I'm sure they did. I can't remember that. Or was it just the the M16?

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. You remember, when somebody gave you a pistol in Vietnam? Did somebody take you out and say, you know, this is where you shoot the trigger and that sort of thing?

SCHNORENBERG: Last and last. That stuff is really foggy. I really can't recall.

BOWERS HEALEY: I don't know. When you were young, did you ever. Wisconsin's a big hunting area. Did you do hunting?

SCHNORENBERG: Interesting. You brought that up? No. I never was a sportsman. My dad would never. You know, we went fishing one time here for a family occasion. Okay. And never ending hunting. I did hunt with my best buddy a couple of times. Little squirrel hunting with a 14. I think it was called. But other than that. So, you know, we got an army expected a nice big deer rifle or something. And they gave me this plastic M-16. Like, is that what we use? I guess it was quite an adjustment when the first troops that were over Vietnam, they did use a, the, the, ones that we, that, that we use for our firing squad now and the switch from M1 to that M16 was quite, quite a change and stuff like that. And like I.

BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me kind of about your well, your crew chief, you've talked a lot about what you did and what you didn't do. What qualities? How would you define a crew chief for a Cobra and what they do?

SCHNORENBERG: So for a Cobra crew chief, your job description will be to do daily maintenance on a helicopter and do all the the work on the on the, on the, on the weapons. Now, a daily maintenance would be, basically what a mechanic would do when you take in for a oil change, they check the brakes a you know, check, you know, the, the oil level and all that stuff. And of course, with a helicopter is definitely monthly and weekly maintenance. You know, I had training just fell through every month. I had to do this every week. And the main thing I remember is all these screws and bolts that had to be tightened and anti-aging, and then they had to be wired with what we call safety wire. You may have seen this in some of the equipment. Sometimes you have to have, you know, so that the bolts cannot come loose. You have to you have to wire it. And so we really got to be really good at with a, you know, with players how to twist the wire and get, get a tight end.

BOWERS HEALEY: You have a checklist for.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, it was definitely a big checklist. And you definitely don't like that way when I work for breaking we don't pencil with the inspection. So we definitely do go through everything.

BOWERS HEALEY: And who would be checking your work?

SCHNORENBERG: Your pilot.

BOWERS HEALEY: The pilots and your pilots were all war officers or not?

SCHNORENBERG: Mine were. Yeah, I don't know. Of course, there was some captains and stuff where there's a lot of warrant officers. Yes. And and we worked closely, of course, with the with the mechanics at the hangar. Once in a while. We are helicopter. We have to go into the hangar for certain maintenance too. But, you know, we weren't really considered mechanics was up in the hangar. I don't know the mechanics.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Any idea for every time, cover went out, how much maintenance had to be done before it flew again?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, yeah, we went by hours. How many hours of flight time had this had gets under that had to get done. And, the guys I got courses who were, mostly were farm guys or these were familiar with the farm. And we always joked about, you know, using binder twine instead of the safety wire or something. And, and that the big nut and the and the big rotor that was called the Jesus nut. And so, we always had to drop out that something as a pilot was getting in, we'd say, well, we use binary twine today, if you don't mind. So he was a good sense of humor.

BOWERS HEALEY: And where those mechanics are our chiefs.

SCHNORENBERG: Those are the warrants, chiefs and officers. You know, we joked with them, all right. And we go good with four of them because of course they had a trust us, you know. So they they were all very treat us very nice.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you work with the same, pilot and copilot repeatedly?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, yeah. We were they had their names right on the helicopter. Sometimes we were actually printed on and we were able to name our helicopters, and we painted big snake teeth and, cobra teeth on the helicopters and stuff. So we we did that ourselves. And. Yeah, each copter was assigned a pilot and copilot.

BOWERS HEALEY: What was the name of your helicopter, Jennifer. Any particular reason?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, I don't know how this came about, but, first of all, there was like 3 or 4 of us that went through all. The basic and eight and nine. Together. We all stuck together for some reason, and the one guy was a married man and had a little girl at home by the name of Jennifer. Oh, okay. I felt so bad, you know, I mean, here I was drafted this thing, right? I didn't even have a girlfriend. And here he's sent her. You know, I think even on Omri. And here he was drafted. And that little girl at home.

BOWERS HEALEY: And what was his position?

SCHNORENBERG: He was a crew chief also. We all were assigned a different helicopter.

BOWERS HEALEY: And, how long were you in Vietnam?

SCHNORENBERG: It was Bobby. 14 months.

BOWERS HEALEY: Was that longer than the normal tour?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes, yes. The normal tour is 12 months. Exactly 12 months.

BOWERS HEALEY: And why did you stay an extra two months?

SCHNORENBERG: Okay, well, then when I was back in the States, doing nothing for two months because we were all just two year people. So if you do the mathematics, if basic training takes eight weeks and that takes many weeks and a couple of weeks for transferring, you end up having like two months or three months left when you get on time. And again, we're talking about, you know, everyone feels over Vietnam veterans. Well, how about these World War Two guys that we're in for the duration or in today's Army that they chip them over for 2 or 3 months, come home, go back to 2 or 3 months, come back. So it was really nice and clean and cut that you knew we going to be there exactly 12 months and that's it. So although we hope that the, when it gets close to the time we go home when we heard that, what happens then they approach you to do, have an extended stay. So if you can stay in the war zone for another 2 or 3 months, when you get out, you're out completely because all we heard was, well, you get back in the States and they have nothing for you to do. So you're in KP duty and picking up cigaret butts all day long and getting harassed. And you know, so no, they wanted that after coming home from a war, you know. And that was another thing with how lucky we were as crew chiefs. We did not have to do any KP duty. We never did KP duty. We never have to do guard duty or anything because of all the night scrambles. We couldn't be on the line being a guard and also being scramble out with our helicopters. So we were exempt of all that. It was just amazing how we lucked out. So the last thing I want to do is do KP duty back in the States, because I knew how bad it was and you know, in basic training.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did do KP.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh yeah. And and and advanced training okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. So you extended stay there for 14 months. night scrambles. How often would those happen during your 14 months there.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, I would think that I every week a couple every week.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you mentioned there was a fair amount of drinking there.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah. We, we also, we were able to I think with the Oscar's club, we were able to go to one scale because they had what we call a floor show where we had gogo dancers dancing and stuff, and, and we would do a $10, right? Yeah. I would say every week we had a floor show that we were able to go see, and they had some really good bands there, and every so often they'd have a couple of even Americans, you know, come to come over and stuff.

BOWERS HEALEY: Any particular Americans that you remember that came over for entertainment? No.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. These are. I'm not talking about the, like, the Bob Hope things I'm talking about. What would it be called? But they they would sign up to go on a tour that go to these places.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Now, you mentioned you were in the Central Highlands, a while ago. During this this interview. Tell me more about the Central Highlands and the base you were located. What was your, for example, what were your quarters like? Where did you live?

SCHNORENBERG: It was a very large, base. So we had, barracks almost the size. What we had, like in basic training. Basic training was like World War two barracks, I understand. And our barracks in, at work, Atari was about the same. About same size. It was like Bobby Y-12 was 12, 18 people in each barracks. We shared a bunk.

BOWERS HEALEY: You mentioned Atari. Is that a.

SCHNORENBERG: Port? Atari was a camp that was right outside play. Cool.

BOWERS HEALEY: You know how to spell Atari?

SCHNORENBERG: No, I heard on.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: I'm sorry. I should do my homework.

BOWERS HEALEY: That's fine. That's fine. We'll work.

SCHNORENBERG: On that. But we, you know, we were outside to play crew, and I never again, just being a naive guy and never interested in going into town. So I never went out of town. And you always heard that nothing happens good in town, you know?

BOWERS HEALEY: So I'm like, who is that town?

SCHNORENBERG: And we. I never went in there. I never was one for foreign countries or anything. So I never, never interest me. But most of my friends, I think they'd go into town once or twice for Atari.

BOWERS HEALEY: What sort of security did it have?

SCHNORENBERG: Very good security. I mean, it was, although they allowed me to come in to clean our. Yeah, we we had people, which means we call them. They came in, we had made the cleaner clean our barracks out and had people, burn our waste for us and stuff. So we had Latin. So, I mean, when I said real good security, I wonder if we had all those people coming in.

BOWERS HEALEY: What was when you say good security, fences or armed guards or what?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. Armed guards. And then, of course, like, I think there's like three tiers of fencing with that, with the, the barbed wire fencing. Again, I never got on the line to have to do guard duty. So I don't know how I think they'd play it. Two different lines of guard duty guards. And that's just the regular people. Whatever job they had at that, for every once a week, at least they had guard duty once or twice a week.

BOWERS HEALEY: Soldiers.

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. Okay. Definitely.

BOWERS HEALEY: At the base where you were, you were located at or Fort Atari. Was that all Hilo pilots and crew chiefs or did you have infantry or what?

SCHNORENBERG: Did you go? There definitely was infantry also. Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: I can't recall any tanks or anything. That was definitely I.

BOWERS HEALEY: Can't recall any one.

SCHNORENBERG: Tanks.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, tanks. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And it was mostly all helicopters. And then again, the Air force base, which is down there always. And then of course they had the, the, the jets and and the bombers and the Air force base.

BOWERS HEALEY: Other than the hooch maids, did you have any contact with the locals or the maintenance?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, they not really. No. But they did have the barbers come in, so they had barbers and businesses that that also was that the. And so we were able to get, you know, a massage once a month or so and get our haircuts. You know, to this day, I tell my barber all the time, oh, my, also my chiropractor, how they, the barber would crack your neck. And, you know, why would we trust that crack in that neck? But when when you got done with the haircut, they would crack your neck like that. How many forget that.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did it feel good or not? Yeah. Yeah. No.

SCHNORENBERG: And then, the Massachusetts. I don't know how often we went to get a massage, but that was always clever, too. They they start you out on your back and they start massaging you. And then all of a sudden they realize, you know, you might be getting a little bit aroused, and then they slap you in the butt. Okay, roll over. And then they do your back. And then if you're on your way.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Brother barbers, men or women? Men, men.

SCHNORENBERG: And women were. When I had a woman, it was right, I think, right next to the pea. They had a facility for them, and I recall the food wasn't really that bad. I was eating apricots for a whole year, thinking they were Vietnamese wineries, and didn't know what the difference was. I always thought they were oranges. But most of it was local food. And then I like that. Back in the day that they were called sea rats, and back then another called something else. But but we never really had that many see rations because we always had a hot meal every day.

BOWERS HEALEY: And who was preparing the hot meal.

SCHNORENBERG: That would be regular chefs and stuff. And, you know, the cooks rather soldiers. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And laundry.

SCHNORENBERG: Laundry. Good question. I think those housemaids did it for us. I think we had a laundry bag and they would go ahead and do the laundry for us. They recall I can't do any laundry either. I had a maid. I to this day, I thank the Lord how easy I had over there and how much recognition I'm getting, you know, for not really doing much. And that's what I tell everybody, you know, these people that then serve in a war zone, you know, they're not qualified. They don't qualify for the Vietnam War because when a veteran of a foreign war. But like I tell them, I says, you guys probably saw more discomfort and knew by risk more than we were. Some of us in Vietnam, like my brother in law was over there and they needed a new clerk.

BOWERS HEALEY: He was over.

SCHNORENBERG: There in Vietnam. Okay. And they they asked, they need a new clerk. And they asked someone to step forward who knew how to do typing. And he stepped step forward. And he was just a paper with 2 or 3 fingers, and he end up being a clerk for 12 months. You never, never saw anything. Never, never touched a weapon. He wasn't a clerk for all 12 months. So just because you were a war veteran doesn't mean you saw more discomfort or risk, as if you were stationed someplace else.

BOWERS HEALEY: You mentioned this was a large, installation over there. Any idea how many?

SCHNORENBERG: No, I don't.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. It was pretty well built up when you got there.

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. Most definitely. Okay. And then they closed it down before we left there that there is downsizing. So we had to move. And that was the other experience I had over there being going on a convoy and moving our stuff over the, k.

BOWERS HEALEY: Convoy to on k m. And what sort of stuff did you move over?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, we our personal belongings and and we had helped the mechanics move all their tools and stuff. Other equipment.

BOWERS HEALEY: How long were you at on.

SCHNORENBERG: That was the longest two months of my life, because that was at the end when we got extended and they saw a lot of action over there. They had, a couple of people who infiltrated the camp there already and had satcher, but we got bombed over there a couple times by helicopter, got blew up. So that got really hairy at the end.

BOWERS HEALEY: Got blown up at it. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And.

BOWERS HEALEY: Was it on the airfield?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes, it was on the airfield.

BOWERS HEALEY: No one was in it.

SCHNORENBERG: No, no, no one's in there. I don't know. I don't think anyone. Really. Few injuries. I don't think no one ever got killed. But it was pretty clear. He got up that morning and got to the airfield, and all the helicopters were on that island, but some were blown up. So I wanted to see what he got me to do and nothing to do but help cover this guy. And, you know, he said, well, how about an hour? An hour? So I really was on one, you know, as well. We can get you out a second one. So I went to Japan for my second hour. An hour.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. How long you're in Japan?

SCHNORENBERG: A week?

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: The world's fair with Brennan. So I get to see the World's Fair.

BOWERS HEALEY: Where'd you go in Japan?

SCHNORENBERG: Wherever the World's fair was, I don't even know.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Did you go with any Haribo?

SCHNORENBERG: No. I was all by myself, and I ran into a couple of people. But that was really. I was mostly the loner. I was just just my my first aunt. I went to Australia. I was I went there by myself, too.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: So yeah, that's another benefit. I got to Australia, in Japan.

BOWERS HEALEY: Australia for a week or two or longer.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. And that was I was more familiar with that because, of course they all spoke English and I was hooked up with a couple of other people there because a couple of my buddies went there ahead of time. I found that my friends, they were farmers, and they actually got arrangements of stay right on a farm in Australia and a couple of really nice two girls. It took them around and stuff. So then when I went over there, I stayed in Sydney and, you know, I really I took about city slickers. I really liked the big city. I really enjoyed Australia and all the different kinds of drinking establishments they had there. But then I did hook up with those two gals that my friends stayed with. So they took me out to the country to show me that kangaroos and all that stuff, and they were the two cutest little girls. I would really have fun with them. You know, my one friend who actually married one of them that brought it back to United States.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And then you went back to, for, for an Atari. Okay. For an Atari. You said the security you thought was pretty good, although Vietnamese came, came and went. Did you ever get bombed or, anybody infiltrate at night and.

SCHNORENBERG: Not knowing every else portrayed as bad? We got so called bombed a lot. They called it harassment. You know, the with me, they're just going to harass us by, like, you know, bombing the outer perimeter room or at all, but. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: I guess I dropped this. You're. You were not in air conditioned barracks, I take it?

SCHNORENBERG: No. And we all had mosquito nets. We had a rape thing. Oh, you did mosquito, though. Yeah. But it, it was a pretty big camp. And you, you see all these base camps, you know, maybe in the movies or whatever. And then in all these Firebase camps and stuff was nothing like that was a regular, but almost as good as the one in the States. You know, it's very some paved roads and everything.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh okay. Now there were probably helicopter pads. Were there runways or not?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. They were made of metal though. You know how they do that. They're all metal runways. They were.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And then it'll have to had bunkers on each side. Helicopter. We had to make sure we directed pilots into the, into the bunkers.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you you mention loading ammunition. Did you always have enough ammunition? Did you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well supplied. Yes. What type of uniform did you wear on a daily basis?

SCHNORENBERG: It was a real loose shirt and that time we didn't wear a shirt at all. We had a lot of pictures of ourselves without any shirts on. In fact, Christmas, Christmas Day was a ceasefire and we took a live picture of ourselves laying out in the yard with our shirts on, sending ourselves, you know, with calm beer. Oh, I remember. I remember that Christmas. But yeah. So we were very lenient. We didn't have to, you know, switch on our boots or anything. And, never had I never wore cap. Some of the guys were cats because of the sun, but I never had a cap on, and. Yeah, real. Real was sure it was okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. When you're 14 months came up. What were you thinking? You're happy that your time was done?

SCHNORENBERG: I couldn't wait to get out of there. And I had to get home because my sister was getting married. Just to be married in August. I was your. I was the first. I was her best man, so I. And. My brother came back from the service like two months earlier than I did. So he was off in Vietnam that same time I was actually.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that was the brother in law that married your sister. Okay. Did you have any contact with your partner?

SCHNORENBERG: I don't know if I can even remember him that well. I remember a little bit of him before I went to nine, but not that much. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me about male over in Vietnam or communications?

SCHNORENBERG: It was. It was really good. We we used, tape recorders, little cassette tables. And then I did a lot of recording that way. And then we, I, we like writing letters all the time. They got a picture of us on, and little table we had between the two bunks, and that's where we did over a table writing and stuff. But, yeah, we did a lot of writing. In fact, my dad wrote me a couple times I should not be so detailed on my letters. And I was doing my mom nervous, so I be careful.

BOWERS HEALEY: Was, the mail censored at all? I don't know, okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And then I had a pen pal, a girl from the high school that I got friends with, not a girlfriend, which is friend with. And she was writing me letters all the time, and, I kind of cut that out because for a few weeks there, we went into Cambodia, and we really weren't supposed to be in there, but we flew in, we my, my unit flew in in Cambodia. We cut off a couple of supply lines that we were using, and we were really proud of that. It was a real victory for us. And here I get a letter from my friend that was going to Madison telling me how they're really supporting us, and they're out demonstrating every day that they went in that, that, that we're now we're heading into Cambodia and they're protecting us, that they're protesting, protesting that we wouldn't go into Cambodia. We were just taking the after that. We did go in there. And I just wrote her one more letter about something I never heard from her since.

BOWERS HEALEY: How are your your parents and your family about writing? How often could you anticipate you're going to get a letter from them? Oh, I.

SCHNORENBERG: I I bet you once a week, you know? Okay. I don't know what my brother writing was, but I think my two sisters are all pretty much where's my older sister Dick. And she was used to writing to her boyfriend, and she wrote one to me right away, too.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you said you did some tape recording so back.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. And that was the most fun doing the tape recording, I think.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you get tape recordings back from the, from your family or were you just like, okay.

SCHNORENBERG: You know, back in Vietnam with the they had all the fancy new electronics and stuff. So that was a up and coming thing that maybe with a tape recorder and, and a tape recorder.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did your family save any of your letters?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, I think so, yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Do you have.

SCHNORENBERG: Them? I don't think so, no.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, okay.

SCHNORENBERG: But. But I know once a couple of letters came, I was concerned because my mom came up with, came down with breast cancer, and they they really belittled it, so I didn't think nothing of it. They they said, okay, no big deal. I didn't really realize it. You know, they they, you know it. So you have both her breast removed, both her breast and stuff. And I had no idea about that because I was just concerned about her multiple sclerosis, you know, that with the breast cancer.

BOWERS HEALEY: Sure.

SCHNORENBERG: So I didn't really find out that till probably months and months after I got home, how serious it really was.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you save any of the letters that you received today? What did you save? Letters that you received? You know.

SCHNORENBERG: The letter that I remember seeing was from my my wife, my best buddy was writing her. I didn't know her at the time, but they they were pen pals. Oh, okay. And he she saved all his letters. And that was interesting. He was infantry. He saw a lot of action. That's another story to tell. If we have time. Sure.

BOWERS HEALEY: Go ahead, go ahead. Really?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. Okay, so my best buddy and I, we, we would skip our school and go to this other high school and see his two, childhood friends. They were twins, twin girls. And, so we, we just wave at them and I thought, you know, that was what I did. But anyway, when I came home, he got home shortly after I did, and. We are out bar happen again. Of course. And he didn't say anything about having a date that night or anything. But here he was arranged to meet up with that pen pal, and when he was killed in a car accident with me, he I a brand new GTO. And, I left him drive it and we got in a bad accident. He was killed. And so I'm laying in the hospital a couple days later, and. So this gal shows up when I know who was in the car with him and stuff, and was it was that that pen pal of his. Okay, so one thing led to the next, you know, I, I really went over there. I felt really uncomfortable. I was really in bad shape. And so I told the orderly to get her out. And so within hours, get get her out of here and here. He thought we were friends or something. I don't even know her, you know? And so, but after a while, we've got to be really close friends. And later on, she was staying till midnight. They were sneaking out the back door. And I got real good friends with the chaplain at that hospital. And we had some really good talks, and he he warm. He said, don't get so close to this gal. You don't really know her that well. You know, I said, I, I know, I know her family from from my best buddy, you know, I know her uncle real well and stuff. And obviously we end up getting engaged.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And I asked the chaplain if he would, you know, help celebrate the mass since he wasn't really give me his blessings on the wedding. Is that okay? I will so he to I had two priest Marius. Oh, okay. And the funny thing is, well, 4 or 5 years later, he left the police priesthood. And here he is, 51 years later, I'm still married to that same woman now. But yeah, so we were going through all our stuff, and here, here she. My wife brought out all these letters from my my buddy that.

BOWERS HEALEY: The best buddy was somebody you knew from high school. Oh, yeah.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. And which hospital were you in?

SCHNORENBERG: Saint Joseph's Hospital in West Bend. Okay. He brought a friend with him and army buddy with him, too. So his three of us in the car, and I was in the front seat, and his buddy was in the backseat, and he was he got transported back down to Missouri. And we had similar injuries of our femur and our hip and everything. So I was in back then. They put you in traction surgery. So I was in tractions like six months in the hospital. And that's why I got to know my, my future wife so well. She'd come up every night, we played cards and stuff and she'd go out with my buddies. But one of my friends would come in in the hallways. And who did you set us up with? She is a pool shark. She beat us in every game and pool, and we started playing bar days. And she beat us in birthdays, too.

BOWERS HEALEY: Yeah, she's still a pool shower.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah. So interesting. Interesting side note on her and I service.

BOWERS HEALEY: Back to your service before we go. Oh, so you got sent home 14 months because you extended, for an extra two. And where did they send you to get discharged again?

SCHNORENBERG: I think it was. I think then it was Auckland, and they warned us already to be careful because in these airports, not everybody going to be friendly, you know, and I think I was more scared than I was in the reception.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you have.

SCHNORENBERG: The very few people like you just kind of kind of stared at you a couple of people, you know, little baby killer or something, I guess. I don't know that. I know I was got into the both bathroom and we took we took our uniforms off. They told us to take our uniforms off. Pretty, pretty sad, But then I know somehow I put the uniform back on, because when I got to Milwaukee, I wanted, like, my uniform. And for my parents, you know, so I know I came home with my uniform on, but I only took them off in the airport. I don't know how many people I grew up with or whatever, but I think they they met me at the West, at the Milwaukee airport, and then I had my uniform back on.

BOWERS HEALEY: Your parents knew when you were coming back?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. On that.

BOWERS HEALEY: Flight. And were you discharged when you got back to, before you got old?

SCHNORENBERG: And I got discharged right then and there? Yeah. That discharge papers and sent you off an airplane and a lot of people in line, they had, you know, girlfriends, they were riding tour fiancees or whatever. I might as well rent my family and they'd have their picture of their girlfriends while I had a picture of a GTO in my, my locker. And I might add, as I said, my dad was a Pontiac dealer, so I told him that good bye. By that time he was working for Pontiac more, but he went down to that place and ordered me a brand new, before I had the money saved up from from the N.W. and from Sears. And then, of course, Vietnam. I was on a gambler. A lot of people gamble a lot of money over there, but I wasn't. I didn't play cards or anything, so I saved all that money. I got flight pay, headdress, duty pay and regular pay. And back then that was enough to buy a brand new GTO. I then paid $5,000 for it, and so it was waiting in the driveway when I came home. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: So how did you, get money issue? It sounds like you saved a lot of your money. Go directly to a bank.

SCHNORENBERG: It must be directly. Must have been directly deposited in the United States. I can't recall having that much cash over there. I really didn't need anything.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Did you get paid somewhat in cash? Or check or what?

SCHNORENBERG: I don't know, isn't it how foggy. Although it was 50 some years ago, but still, I, you know, I, you know, I, I get to go with my army buddies every year or twice a year. We get together and we we don't even ask questions about that. You we ask them questions. They see my memory I want. But he he he was really injured in a farm accident. He got a flight for life. And he's in the helicopter questioning the pilots about the helicopter, this or that, all that stuff. And I don't remember anything like about the helicopters that much.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, you were, flight it out when you were in your car accident or.

SCHNORENBERG: No, I was just by ambulance. Okay, but he was flight out by helicopter. And my other close buddy, he was an ATV accident and same thing. He had fly for life. He was in a coma for a couple of weeks. So, you know, all three of us had close calls after we got home. And my my fourth buddy from Alaska, he, he didn't have any problems when he got home, but he was already married with kids, so that helped. But, so we kept really close. The four of us, we got together every summer.

BOWERS HEALEY: Who are the guys that you kept close with weekly?

SCHNORENBERG: Ken and Dwayne and Ron and, we we went to each other's weddings, and then we went every summer after that, we got together. And then as the kids grew, we played ball with them. And you got to be a point. When the kids got that much older, we had to get some of the older kids to play on our team, get beat. So we did that every single summer for 50 years.

BOWERS HEALEY: Some of those, men still living?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. Okay. Ron from Alaska, she passed away, and he's the one that moved on to Missouri for a while. But other than that, the other ones are still in Minnesota. And we we.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, they're from Minnesota. Back from Wisconsin. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And then, when we got a little bit, when the kids got a bit older that they could be home alone, they would say doing a winter outing, too. So we started doing twice a, twice a year, one one summer. We rotate our houses and the other, you know, we're doing material query that would make sense a little quickly. And so we, you know, clear every every winter.

BOWERS HEALEY: That's just the men.

SCHNORENBERG: Or with the women. In fact, I'm best friends with with one of the ways more so than I am with the guy. In fact, they just seem to see us. A couple weeks ago, they stayed overnight by us and I visit with her, more so. And he, he's the one who had that ATV action. So he he's a little bit introverted now than he was with that brain injury. But I, his wife and I, we get along so well. We talk cars all the time. She's a real car buff and stuff. And the other two are the other guy is a was a school teacher in Minnesota. They both were schoolteachers. He and her were both her schoolteachers. So yeah, we have quite a close knit group, the four of us.

BOWERS HEALEY: It's great. Yeah. How long did you date your wife or know your wife before you got married?

SCHNORENBERG: I just a couple of years. I started, I went to tech school for marketing, and I did a mock up advertising plan for the Adobe that I used to work for. And they were impressed with that. They were thinking about buying in W in Hertfordshire. And so they approached me that maybe I would leave school and running form, and I decided I would do that. So we opened up a brand new. And down the road from that root beer stand that was there, and they were playing, for me to go to school in California. They said, you know, run. You know, if you were married, you could, if you married Pat, you could take Pat along the California for the school. And we have conventions every year. But, you know, I didn't and I, we really frown on not having you married, you know. So I talked to Pat because we were engaged. We got engaged Saint Patrick's Day of, I think, 71, not 72. They've had two. They have 72. And so this is in the spring of 73. They're talking about, you know, in the fall we'd be going to the school. So we decided we planned like a nine month and nine month. We planned of the wedding. So we got married in November 3rd of 73. And right after that, that was our honeymoon, to go down in California to school for two weeks. Three weekends.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Going back, how long? After you got discharged from the Army before you had an X car accident?

SCHNORENBERG: There have been the following summer.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, so you're right.

SCHNORENBERG: When I went back to school. But I work that winter. It's yours, robot. And then that summer was a car accident. So that one of.

BOWERS HEALEY: Then you were laid up for at least six months.

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah, for sure, I. And then when I got home, I was in a body cast and everything.

BOWERS HEALEY: Living with your parents? Yep, yep. Mom's still living at that time? Yes.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. Mom was doing fairly well. I think she may be in a wheelchair now. She was in a wheelchair by then. Yet? No.

BOWERS HEALEY: You mentioned that you went to a tech school. What tech school did you go?

SCHNORENBERG: Green Park Technical Institute in, in West Bend. Now it's called Marine Part College, but whatever.

BOWERS HEALEY: But say that name again.

SCHNORENBERG: Ring park, technical Institute, marine Park technical.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And that that was enjoyable time too, because again, I wasn't much of a student in high school, but being in the Army, I learned how to hit the books and study, and I really enjoyed that marketing school. We had a couple of really fantastic teachers, and again, I got to hold a couple of good friends there and, you know, we ran the bowling team together and, and, my fiancee at the time, I don't know, maybe was a fiancee. My girlfriend at the time really enjoyed hanging out with them too, for bowling and stuff.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that's located in West Bend, that tech school. Yes. Okay. Did you use the, GI Bill?

SCHNORENBERG: No, I didn't I didn't use the GI Bill. You know, when I bought my first house, I never. Okay, I really didn't even get involved with the Veterans Affairs or anything. I, you know, that's another whole new story about how a lot of us veterans never really recognize ourselves as veterans. We just went back and did our thing because the war was so unpopular already. We were going to sit there and brag about the war, you know?

BOWERS HEALEY: I think in your intake you indicated that you work for Heartland Food Corporation.

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. That's at Burger King. Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, that's Burger King, yes. And you've been mentioning, and w.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. So Amwu is really where I got started in the food business because then, I, I only did one year of a two year marketing degree, but I only got one year out of that. And I opened up that in W in Hartford here. And for 13 years I ran that in W, I probably on the youngest manager around. I remember I was wearing a, I always wore a tie because I want the parents to know that I was the manager in that one of the employees. Okay. And my wife helped me with that business and stuff, and we raised three kids, all of whom would be downstairs in the W, I don't know, with their Hot Wheels and stuff. And so it was a fantastic business. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: And then you moved on to something else?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah. My assistant manager was really gung ho, and he wanted to go further than just. And so he went with Burger King. And eventually that's where I ended up with Burger King then.

BOWERS HEALEY: How long do you work for Burger King?

SCHNORENBERG: About 30 years.

BOWERS HEALEY: 33 zero.

SCHNORENBERG: Wow. So 13 years with, within, with and, 30 years with Burger King. I always felt that it was a good career. I mean, you know, they got these, schoolteachers going to school for all those years with student loans and everything else. And they're teaching these kids, these teenagers what to do and all that stuff, and involved with sports. And I was able to do that with and with all the employees. I mean, back then they had, man, we had 20, 30 employees. Now they only have a handful of employees. But back then we had 20 or 30 employees at each working. And there. Even then, I didn't really talk about my being a veteran or anything. Veterans day would come and go and nothing was. Was said about Veterans Day at all? It wasn't until I joined the VFW before I realized what would like to be a veteran, I guess.

BOWERS HEALEY: So when did how when did you join the VFW and who got you interested in?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, I actually, I guess I joined shortly after Vietnam I was in, but I only went to a couple of meetings, and I wasn't interested that the World War Two guys could care less if we were there. And the Vietnam guys, a few guys that were there, all they do. One of the want to do is talk about war stories and stuff, and I didn't want to do that. So I really quit paying membership on it, I guess. And then, it was 911 when I decided I would work over in W. We, we also owned a motel outside of town, a little tiny motel that my wife ran. And that's why I say, well, you know, I should really join the VFW again. So that's why I joined the VFW and got interested. And looking through the roster of the VFW, I got interested so soon they made me a secretary of it. Great way. I'm looking through the roster and notice a couple names on there that I knew from the JCS. I got real gung ho with the JCS when I was in Aberdeen. I was president and stuff, and one of my vice presidents of the JCS were Vietnam veterans, and I didn't even know it. We never even talked about it. And it's just amazing. So, that's when I thought, well, it's about time we start promoting patriotism and start promoting people getting involved with veterans organizations. So that's when I got really gung ho with the VFW.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that's the VFW in Hartford.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, we had a we had a hall and everything we had all at the time.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. You still have a hall?

SCHNORENBERG: No, I it that if you're there, like I mentioned earlier, in my early years of the VFW meetings, I didn't care for those meetings. And then I joined. I didn't care for those meetings. It was all about the hall, even though I was under, you know, I was running restrooms myself. The last thing I wanted to do was be on the porch, and all we worry about is the beer bill and the bar bill. And then who do I fix? The air conditioning and how many different ways we need and all that stuff. And there was a lot of discussion on that. So I joined them what was called the House Committee. And during that committee, since I had the restroom experience and try to get things squared away, that we don't spend so much time and effort and energy and running a bar and dance hall and worry about more about the VFW, getting veterans to get involved with the VA and get involved with VFW. So eventually we did cause the hall. We sold it. Okay.

BOWERS HEALEY: So you've been involved again, actively involved since 911, 2001. What sorts of things does your VFW do and what what VFW were you member of?

SCHNORENBERG: I belong to 8834, which is Hartford. And when we had the hall, we did, bingo, like twice a month, and we had dances there, and, we had this, we called Avenue of Flags outside the hall that we took flags from, coffins. The families would donate coffin flags to us, and we were embroider the name on it and put it out in front of all of our festival events for holidays and stuff. Okay, so that was that. It was. I really was impressed with that. But basically what we mostly do was just setting up tables and cleaning and snow removal and stuff like that. So again, when I got in that House committee, I said, it's gotta be something better than that to do. There's so much squabbling about who is working where and what. And I remember that one time that one of the vice commanders went to a training session and handed in his his expense voucher for a meal and and for mileage. And some of the old guys were really upset that when we come here, we clean the hall, we don't get paid at all. And and then we had to start paying him members for setting up tables and stuff. And we had we paid the waitresses, we had a full time bar manager. And so we just were going broke. So I contacted one of realtors and talents with lunch. Come talk to and see what this place is worth. If we could maybe sell it to somebody or something, you know. And he came and he he got the message across and the members would have been like, what are you guys trying to do, run them fish fry in a bar only twice a week. When you get all these bars downtown, and the mind should have been your number one competitor. He says, you know, you guys really should sell it to them. He did a really good job. I think he had a customer of mine already. Got some truth. Bought it.

BOWERS HEALEY: So. So when did you, if you recall.

SCHNORENBERG: That was. That was ten years ago. Okay. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: And what does your VFW do now?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, we we meet at the town hall instead. They only charge $3 a month to meet at the town hall, and they're trying to maintain a hall. And we basically, do a lot of things for the veterans. We we have money now that we can spend on things, and we really can spend our effort on fundraising also. So we do raise and we, we do that poppy weekend. So we, we raised like $4,000 just distributing poppies in the town to kind of the residents just donate money to the, to the bucket for that. And we were going to do that a couple weekends right now. And so that's like, you know, 25 shifts that we fill it. We never could have done that when we had the how lucky we get one afternoon. Even so, we were able to do that and we extended that avenue of flags. Now that we don't have that hall but that park, a friend of I'm one of the members, and I were instrumental in securing the park in town here at Sawyer Park, and we arranged to have dog in that park. And I designed a pathway for that park and everything. So now we put the flags up there and we have extended it twice since then. We started with 80 holes and then we got 100 holds up there. So that's our big baby that we have in front of the flags. It costs like 50 bucks embroidered flags and the flags are like $80 apiece if we don't get them donated. And so that's what our big project is actually.

BOWERS HEALEY: Does your VFW, attend funerals?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. We have an honor guard. And, we, we do about 30 funerals a year. Okay. And I'm ahead of that, too.

BOWERS HEALEY: So you go out to 30 funerals?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. And then and then we also do things for the schools or dedication for things. For example, I just came, came from the nursing home and that nursing home assisted living place. They're going to do a wall of honor for their residents of who are veterans. And so I went there and gave them a flag and a shadow box, donated that to them. And then when it's time to get that, done, then we're going to go there and we'll do taps in for the flag for them and stuff. We do that for, you know, the high schools and Veterans Day. We go to all the high schools and perform some type of thing.

BOWERS HEALEY: None of your members ever speak or do a speaking presentation. And, have you done that or other members? Oh, yeah. Right. Okay. What sort of classes do you.

SCHNORENBERG: What that classes that they think the, school assembly. So then they, they spend a few minutes explaining how, how important to have patriotism and how to, have flag etiquette, you know, should it should stand when you see flag passing the parade. Of course, we do parades, too. We're in charge of the Memorial Day one. So we set up the whole entire Memorial Day parade, and we have a big program afterwards. You know, everything that our course is in charge of is five cemeteries that we that we placed flags on all the grave sites, about 2000 flags in Hereford that we placed on the tombstones. So we do that every spring and, and every fall. We, we take them down.

BOWERS HEALEY: All righty, Tom. I lost my train of thought, but I'll pick it up pretty soon. Oh, I know. When you were in training, way back in basic training or in your, advanced schooling, were there any Vietnam veterans there, that talked about their experience in Vietnam?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, I think the drill sergeants kind of threatened us and gave us stories, you know, kind of get us prepared for it. I can't really recall a one on one conversations with anybody, you know.

BOWERS HEALEY: Sure. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And, and then we weren't that many movies. I it the first movie we, I remember seeing that in advanced training. We went to see, the Green Beret.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, okay. With John Wayne.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, yeah. All right.

BOWERS HEALEY: Well, you mentioned that when you rejoined, the VFW. I think you said you became secretary. Did you? How what other posts, if any, did you hold in the, VFW?

SCHNORENBERG: Well, you know, I was on the House committee and then and then, of course, I became commander after that.

BOWERS HEALEY: When were you commander?

SCHNORENBERG: 2000, 16 and 17. And then again, the last five years.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, you're currently commander of the post?

SCHNORENBERG: A total of eight years so far. I took a couple years off there, but. Yeah. Okay. So what happened? I kind of was one that kind of spearheaded getting rid of the hall there and stuff. And so and I was a we call ourselves adjutant. We're not really Secretary is called the adjutant. That's my position. And I, you know, say up decent minutes. These are agendas for the meetings where we have decent minutes, these meetings. So I started doing the agenda for that and stuff and and started doing a newsletter. I thought, what I'm doing all this work, I might as well be commander. So I ran for commander.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. I think I, saw something again on the internet. Were you involved? Fairly recently in a parade in Hartford?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah. We do parades. Three days a year. We do. Okay. The Memorial Day parade is our parade that we do. And then, and then we do for the light parade. We head off that parade, and then, and then, the Christmas parade last year, you know, you may read was last year was, the Christmas tree was right on, Veterans Day. So they, they, they made the parade more of a veterans parade. And we had a sign I was able to I nominated five veterans to be the parade marshals that year. So I picked one from every branch of the service, you know, and then they were the parade marshals. Okay. And then the one of those years that I wasn't commander, they made me the parade marshal for the Memorial Day parade. And it was quite, quite humbling that they had my big biography up on stage and stuff. That was great, great, great good. All my family showed up for that and stuff.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, nice. Yes. Okay. They still have that biography?

SCHNORENBERG: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they had to use it the other day that, the American Legion nominated me the Legion year of the year, and I'm not even that big of a gun Legion member I joined several years ago, but I'm not that involved with the Legion. But they never any legion here in years. So I use that bibliography for that award. Great.

BOWERS HEALEY: What sort of reception? I don't know if when you do presentations at, high schools and assemblies at schools, do you get any feedback from the students about military service? Yes.

SCHNORENBERG: Especially veterans. It's just amazing. These grade school kids, they just they write letters for you and stuff and and the teachers just wow all over. Yeah, they it's just it's just been amazing. In fact, my wife thinks it's getting a little bit overdone compared to how it was, you know, 50 years ago. And I agree, you know, like this honor flight, too. I mean, what they go through for that, stars and stripes and her flight is amazing. And you think there's five different flights come out of Wisconsin, you know, ten times a year? It's just amazing what the citizens are doing for veterans nowadays and what they used to.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you went on the honor flight?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes they.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did. And where did you do that?

SCHNORENBERG: That was last, last fall.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. So fairly recently, 2023.

SCHNORENBERG: Okay. I was well overdue for that because most Vietnam veterans have been gone. And already, I guess Milwaukee.

BOWERS HEALEY: You have any Korean veterans or.

SCHNORENBERG: There was a few on there, but that was it. And feel familiar with that on your flight? Because I, wrote letters to several members that have gone on it. They have mail call on the honor flight. So what they do, they reach out, the family reaches out to, VFW members or, you know, friends, relatives to write letters for that mail call. And so while my members have gone on their, their, their wives or daughters have contacted me to write a letter for them. So I knew all about it. And I've gone a why have you? I went to quite a few fundraisers for the honor Flight, and it's one of the biggest things we donate to also. And so I we're all familiar with the honor flight. I just didn't feel like I needed to go. I was healthy enough, I could go on. I wanted to see myself if I wanted to. I've been to a couple times, but the last time I went on, went to a fundraiser, they had talked me into going and just signed up. They said that you've got to go, you know? So I'm really glad I did.

BOWERS HEALEY: Go to experience.

SCHNORENBERG: Yes. Again. They first worry too much.

BOWERS HEALEY: What did you see while you were out in Washington?

SCHNORENBERG: I get to see all the national parks down there. I mean, I've told DC is the best trip to ever make on your own because all those parks are free. So other than housing, it's very inexpensive to go on that trip to DC. So. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: So don't you stay over.

SCHNORENBERG: Well, we don't know if it's a one day trip. Okay. Four in the morning and you get back like eight at night. And and you know being our age I was needed wheelchairs and stuff. They, they give you a wheelchair for every person. So if you don't use it as a wheelchair you can use as a walker. Okay. Well I walking but I was really impressed with the Franklin Roosevelt monument. Let's go. I didn't know much about that one.

BOWERS HEALEY: Had you ever been to Washington, DC?

SCHNORENBERG: Yes, I was me twice, all right. I was in Fort Eustis, Virginia. I hitchhiked up there, on a weekend leave.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: Cherry blossom time. It was really great to see.

BOWERS HEALEY: But that was before the Vietnam War.

SCHNORENBERG: Memorial was. Yes. Oh, that's for sure. Before World War Two was there? Well, which I think was after even Vietnam one and World War Two. And it's very impressive too.

BOWERS HEALEY: So have you seen that before or not. No. Okay.

SCHNORENBERG: And then we went to the Pentagon to see where the that plane landed. That was impressive monument to how they got, a monument for every person killed. That's amazing how they have it. Two of they have it pointing both directions. So the ones that were killed in the Pentagon pointed towards the Pentagon. And ones that were killed on the flight was pointing out away from the Pentagon. Oh, very impressive.

BOWERS HEALEY: It's a lot for one day.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, it definitely was.

BOWERS HEALEY: So you mentioned, concerning. Well, my question is, how do you feel about the military and your war experience? You mentioned that probably not a good reception when you got back to California and maybe a little overdone right now. And you also indicated that you, started with the VFW after a meeting or two. You were particularly interested in channel 911? All in all, how do you feel about your military, experience?

SCHNORENBERG: I would recommend it for anyone. I think it's a fantastic thing. And when you really feel, I mean, really find out how many people that have enlisted that really get to see, you know, war action, you know, under war isn't that many. I think it's definitely worth the gamble or the chance to join the military. I mean, what kids are spending on college tuition, it's just it's just tremendous when you think you could join a service and get the education offer free. Not to mention the experience. Now, my granddaughter went to going to college and her mother says, well, you know, it's a good experience to live away from home, you know, and well, you can get that in the service for free. So yeah, I definitely would recommend to anybody.

BOWERS HEALEY: What motivated you to do this interview?

SCHNORENBERG: A friend of one of the members of the VFW, really, really praised it up. He took his dad to Madison to get it done, and he just they just loved it because his dad died shortly after that. And they said, now they have this for life, you know, and it's means a lot for him.

BOWERS HEALEY: Great.

SCHNORENBERG: And I'm doing it because I again, I want to promote this other people. I only get to get these veterans involved. I can't believe how many veterans, even the today's veterans, the ones from Iraq and Afghanistan, they do not join the organizations. We have very few young members in our organization, and they are like I was before 2001, is just not interested, only recognized I had excuse. I didn't want to be recognized as a veteran because it wasn't that popular of a war anyhow. But. I think it's really important. And I'm very community, community minded. I got that way. When they tell you locally, you have to get community, you know, join the Chamber of Commerce, join the Jaycees or Lions Club or something. And this day and age, you know, people are so involved in raising your own family that they don't see me get involved with the Lions or the rotary that much anymore. I think it's really a big void in their in their life. They should be community minded.

BOWERS HEALEY: I think I've asked about all the questions that I have, but I want to. Is there anything that you would like to add or something that you think we might have left that you didn't notice?

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Go ahead.

SCHNORENBERG: Well, yeah, I mentioned about, you know, the JCS. I was involved in that. And, you know, they were even veterans and all. The festival foods had something going on every Friday throughout the whole state. And Festival Foods, free coffee, donuts for any veterans. And that is a really neat experience going on there, because as many veterans as I know, I get down to Vessel Foods and I only know like half the people, right? They don't know half the people now normally as well. And again, I would just then join and a couple of them I just met that I knew from from the Lions Club or I knew him from the NWA, something that I didn't know they were veterans. And here, here, they're down here having free coffee donuts with the veterans. I didn't know you were a veteran. I haven't I didn't go to Vietnam, so I didn't consider myself a veteran. And so I always said straight on that, that it doesn't matter. You know, where you served. You are a veteran and you sign on the dotted line. And that means as much as someone it's a war action. So yeah, that that better food is really interesting. I got to know a lot of people that way. And by joining an American Legion that helped to a lot of people in American Legion are not war veterans either. But I'm surprised on me are I'm trying to figure out why did they join the Legion and not the VFW?

BOWERS HEALEY: Have you figured that out?

SCHNORENBERG: No. I think it's just like joining a church or joining a Lions Club. It depends on who you know. Why? Why you join those things. And then once you're in, you hit the jump ship and go to another one. And like I, I didn't want to join all the organizations. I figured let me do my interest in one. But again, finally, I did have to join the United Vietnam Vets since I was a Vietnam veteran and they insisted that join the unite the that so I'm I'm a chaplain for that organization and and now I'm, the beverage manager for the Lions Club. I mean the for the American Legion. So I, I'm I'm getting involved with American Legion slowly.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Anything else? I know that when I talked to you, I asked you to kind of jot some things down so that you might want to mention.

SCHNORENBERG: I think that that's about it, I think.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. All right. Then that will be the, end of this interview.

SCHNORENBERG: I hope it wasn't too lengthy.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, no. Oh, no. And I want to thank you for for doing this. Because the Wisconsin Veteran Museum takes pride in doing this program. I'm glad that you're part of the oral history program. So thank you for that.

SCHNORENBERG: Well, that's not anything that has to be promoted more. I don't think that people realize there's that museum, right? Downtown Madison. Right. And it's free of charge. And it's it's beautiful. There's a couple of people there that show you around and talk to you and stuff it. It's a real a real gem for being right downtown Madison. I know there's one in Oshkosh and stuff, but there is a there's a fee to go to that one, and it's very visible from the highway. Right. But here this is right down on the square.

BOWERS HEALEY: Right across from the capital. Yeah. Yeah. And you're right, it's open. So you can go anytime when it's open suggests you do it when maybe aren't so many schoolchildren there, which is usually the case in the spring.

SCHNORENBERG: Well, that's good to know. That's a good feeling to go in there.

BOWERS HEALEY: Yeah, I think Paul, and if you ever wanted to get a carload of people from here in Hartford and make a drive over there. Yeah, I it's a extremely good museum.

SCHNORENBERG: Yeah, that, that road trip. And then of course, the road trip to Neal's ville, Wisconsin. That's the high ground up there. That's a very good place to go to.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Well, thank you very much. I know it was tough coming back from Vietnam and that reception, and, but your service as well as your your fellow service members is greatly appreciated.

SCHNORENBERG: Very good. Oh. Thank you.

BOWERS HEALEY: Thank you.

[Interview Ends]